WATCH: Tour the Criddle-Vane house before it burned via this YouTube video.

Goldsborough photographed the house in 2010 and said like other historic sites he’s photographed, it wasn’t in particularly good shape.

“It’s more of a symbolic loss,” he said. “It wasn’t in any way really noteworthy.”

What makes the site interesting is the family that homesteaded on it – Percy Criddle, his wife Alice, his mistress Elise Vane and his many children.

Criddle, an English gentleman, had five children with Elise Vane, then married Alice Nicol. After his marriage to Alice in 1872, he had one more child with Elise and eight with Alice.

Criddle uprooted both families and brought them to Manitoba in 1882, where they homesteaded through tough times and later built the large house that burned on Wednesday.

The Criddle-Vane “big house” on the homestead near Shilo, Man., as photographed in 2010.

Courtesy of Gordon Goldsborough / Manitoba Historical Society

The interior of the Criddle-Vane home in southwestern Manitoba wasn’t in good shape, as this photo taken in 2010 shows, although some restoration efforts had been made.

Courtesy of Gordon Goldsborough / Manitoba Historical Society

The Criddle-Vane home was more significant for its colourful past than for its architecture, according to Gordon Goldsborough of the Manitoba Historical Society, who took this photo in 2014.

Courtesy of Gordon Goldsborough / Manitoba Historical Society

The Criddle-Vane house in southwestern Manitoba burned to the ground on Wednesday night.

Courtesy of Gordon Goldsborough / Manitoba Historical Society

RCMP say the Criddle-Vane house was fully engulfed in flame when emergency crews arrived at 10 p.m. Wednesday.

RCMP handout / Global News

The Criddle-Vane “big house” burns in rural Manitoba on Wednesday.

RCMP handout / Global News

The Criddle-Vane house burns in a suspicious fire on Wednesday.

RCMP handout / Global News

Nothing remains of the historic Criddle-Vane home.

RCMP handout / Global News

“The place they lived was pretty remote,” said Goldsborough, “probably what you want if you were living an unconventional lifestyle.”

The family built tennis courts – the children cut the grass with knives to create the playing area, according to Criddle’s diaries – and a golf course at the homestead.

The diaries are a wealth of information about the time, Goldsborough said, but Criddle’s biggest contribution to the world was probably his children, who became well-known in a variety of fields.

There are competing books about the family, with fond memories written by his Criddle granddaughter Alma in the book Criddle-de-Diddle-Ensis, published in the 1970s, and a critical look at his legacy by his Vane great-granddaughter Oriole Veldhuis in The Biography of Elise Vane.